FSU’s Department of Music Presents Opera Theatre

Frostburg State University’s Department of Music will present its Opera Theatre in a program that includes a one-act American comic Western opera, scenes from opera and a musical, and the first act of Pietro Mascagni’s “L’amico Fritz” on Monday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Pealer Recital Hall of FSU’s Woodward D. Pealer Performing Arts Center. The concert is free and open to the public. This event will also be livestreamed; click the “Join Stream” button on this page a few minutes before the recital is scheduled to begin, or anytime during the recital, to view the live performance.

The performers are students taking the Opera Workshop course: Joshua James DeVoe, Maddox Hancock, Estella Lepore, Jacob Miller, Laurel Plitnik and Kyle Wolford. They will be accompanied by pianist Dr. Joseph Yungen and guest singers Hannah Hieronimus and Kathryn Schram. The FSU Chamber Singers and some invited instrumentalists from the Music Department will also participate. Stage direction is by Gregory Scott Stuart.

The program will include “I Can See it,” a duet, from “The Fantasticks” by Harvey Schmidt; a scene and duet, “We’ve Been North,” from “The Tender Land” by Aaron Copland; “Sweet Betsy From Pike” by Mark Bucci; a recitative and aria,” “O ew'ge Nacht ... Wie stark ist nicht dein Zauberton,” and duet, “Pa–, pa–, pa–,” from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and Act 1 of “L’amico Fritz” by Mascagni.

“The Fantasticks” is a 1960 musical with music by Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play “The Romancers” (“Les Romanesques”) by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into falling in love by pretending to feud.

“The Tender Land” is an opera with music by Copland and libretto by Horace Everett, a pseudonym for Erik Johns. The opera tells of a farm family in the Midwest of the United States. Copland was inspired to write this opera after viewing the Depression-era photographs of Walker Evans and reading James Agee’s “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.” He wrote the work between 1952 and 1954 for the NBC Television Opera Workshop, with the intention of its being presented on television.

“Sweet Betsy From Pike” (1983), with music and book by Bucci, is a 25-minute satirical opera incorporating variations of the folk tune.

“The Magic Flute” (“Die Zauberflöte”) is an opera in two acts by Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form during the time it was written that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered in 1791. The allegorical plot was influenced by Schikaneder and Mozart’s interest in Freemasonry and concerns the initiation of Prince Tamino. Enlisted by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina from the high priest Sarastro, Tamino comes to admire the high ideals of the latter and he and Pamina join Sarastro's community, while the Queen and her allies are vanquished.

“L’amico Fritz” is an opera in three acts by Mascagni, which premiered in 1891 from a libretto by P. Suardon (Nicola Daspuro) with additions by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, based on the French novel “L’ami Fritz” by Émile Erckmann and Pierre-Alexandre Chatrian.

FSU is following CDC guidance based on current area conditions. For current health and safety guidelines, visit www.frostburg.edu/COVID19.

For more information, contact FSU’s Department of Music at 301-687-4109.